In the game of golf, a golfer must swing the golf club to hit the golf ball accurately towards the hole. This swing must be precise and repeatable to reduce the number of strokes required to get the golf ball in the hole. One particular area of concern for the golfer is the manner in which he or she grips the club. A conventional golf glove is placed on the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed golfers) and designed to prevent hand injury due to friction caused by the repetitive motion of swinging the club. However, golf gloves have also been used for various other purposes including as a means to learn the game of golf.
A great deal of time and effort must be invested in learning how to properly grip a golf club. The proper grip is fundamentally important to maintaining a desirable golf swing. Small errors in hand placement can translate into large deviations from the desired golf ball flight pattern. Without repetitive correct positioning of the golfer's hands in a desirable golf club grip, a golfer will have difficulty striking a golf ball with a golf club in the desired manner or develop a correct repeatable and consistent golf swing.
Many golf gloves use fasteners or indicia to improve or increase the consistency of a golfer's grip. The correct positioning of the hands is hard to maintain during the course of the swing. The prior art uses various methods for securing the hands of the apprentice golfer to allow him or her to acquire a consistent grip and thereby making the correct positioning of the golfer's hands feel natural. However, golfers of all skill levels require a method to learn to vary their grip in an orderly and repeatable manner to achieve multiple golf ball flight patterns.
The exact location and nature of the placement of the hand position fastenings and the visual indicia makes a large difference in the outcome of the training method. The positioning of the fastener and indicia are used to secure a specific motor function for the golfer.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,462,280 issued to Dickerson discloses a pair of golf gloves which combine markers, a plurality of hook like members, and felt like material to form a visual indication of the proper hand placement and a means of securing the thumb of the upper hand to the palm of the lower hand to form the correct grip of the club.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,126 issued to Harvanek discloses a pair of hand gloves which provide a visual indication of an implement, such as a golf club, through the use of markers and other visual indicia. Harvanek provides for multiple “strong” and “weak” grips using a generalized set of indicia. Harvanek does not specify a method for varying the grip in order to achieve multiple desirable golf club grips.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 6,732,377 issued to Wilkinson discloses a pair of handle-grip and sports gloves which utilize fasteners to allow the golfer to relax his or her grip and still maintain the correct interface with the club.
None of the prior art uses a combination of visual indicia and fasteners in specific locations to allow the golfer for an easily variable, repeatable, and correct grip. Therefore, there is a need for a simple, and easy to manufacture, device which allows a golfer to accurately train a specific and variable grip utilizing a combination of fasteners and visual indicia.